Just got home from my RWA chapter meeting. The meeting was great – we had a fab presentation on PR from Lisa Pulliam - but now my head hurts. Gosh, you know, there’s just so much stuff that goes into this whole writing career outside writing the damn book. I’ve played ostrich much of the time, sticking my head in the sand and focusing on writing. But I know I won’t be able to do that forever.

*sigh*

On to more controllable things (at least for me):

100-Day Challenge Update.

The Book From Hades is officially gone and is now sitting on my agent’s desk. Talked to her briefly on Monday. She hadn’t started reading it yet, but is excited about it, so that’s something. In the meantime, I’ve jumped back into my paranormal proposal and have been working steady after taking most of last week off to polish up The Book From Hades. Word count totals since then are as follow:

Saturday: 2278/10 pgs
Sunday: 1464 words/7 pgs
Monday: 2483 words/11 pgs
Tuesday: 1897 words/8 pgs (Synopsis only)

I’m finished with the three chapters and am now focusing on the suckopsis. Gah. I hate those.

Oh! And in other news…I have a theme song! Okay, well, I have two that fit really well so I’m listening to them over and over as I work through this suckopsis. I think (hope) it’s working.

How are you doing with the challenge? Or if you aren’t challenge(d), how are things going for you in general?

It’s done! It’s gone! It’s finally out the door!

Zipped off The Book From Hades to my agent late last night. I probably should have waited until this morning, taken one quick look at it again but . . . I couldn’t. I was more than happy to get that thing good and gone. She may hate it, she may love it. Honestly, I really don’t care. While editing I remembered why I loved it, why I wrote it in the first place and I discovered I’m happy with the end product. And because of all that, I’m thrilled it’s finally out of my hands (at least until uber-agent tells me what she thinks).

Ironically, I actually wrote a scene from Hades in the new book the other day whilst I was mired down in edits for The Book From Hades, ready to pull my eyelashes out. Hmm….coincidence? Not sure…

What’s on the docket now? Finishing my next proposal (I’m halfway through chapter two). I’m hoping to get the first three chapters done and polished in the next couple weeks and then work on *gasp* the suckopsis to send to my agent. Wish me luck.

After that I have a full ms I need to finish polishing. Have minor edits from CPs I need to incorporate which shouldn’t take long (Note to self: Hound CP about edits…) And then I’m diving into two RS proposals that are niggling at me. It’s going to be a busy (and hopefully productive) fall.

Have to get my 1000 words in on the proposal today (AKA: The Book I’m So Excited About I Can Barely Sit Still), then DH and are going out to dinner sans kiddos to celebrate The Book From Hades finally leaving my lair. Thank you, Jesus!

No 1000-words the last three days as I’ve been editing, but as of Tuesday, I can proudly say that in 14 days I’d written (new) over 30K words. And as a dear writer friend pointed out to me this week when I said I was going to keep going with the 1000-words while editing, “Getting that thing done is more important than adding to your little challenge. Get it done, get it gone, then get back to work.” (Or so she said in slightly different words). She was right. And through rewriting this week I easily got in those 1000 words per day plus some. So now it’s back to the challenge and back to work on The Book I’m So Excited About I Can Barely Sit Still.

What’s up with you?

And I’m going to be in big trouble.

I woke up this morning in the best way possible. I was lying on my side, cuddled up into my pillow, when I felt soft, gentle fingers gliding over my cheek. I opened my eyes slowly and looked through the hazy first light of morning into warm, chocolate irises focused right on me. Those soft, little fingers continued to caress my cheek and I smiled when I heard the sweetest words on the planet. “I wuv you, mom.”

Of course, then the DH shattered the whole serene moment when he rolled over on his side of the bed, hooked an arm over the 2-yr old Gremlin who had climbed in between us in the middle of the night and said, “Hey, boy. That’s my woman. Watch it.”

*sigh*

This little guy is going to be trouble. I can see it now. Of all my Gremlins he is the most charming, the most sweet, the one who will undoubtedly turn into a class-A lover. He can anger me with one action – like when he throws his Power Rangers into the toilet and has a flush-fest – and he can disarm me with one of those crooked little smiles of his. He knows he’s the most adorable thing on the planet and he knows just how to work it to get what he wants. And when he runs in front of me, holds up his arms and says, “I hold you,” I melt every time. He’s going to make some woman extremely happy one day. I just feel sorry for all the hearts he’s going to break along the way.

*sigh*

Can you tell I’m editing the sappy emotional black moment of my book? Argh. I think I’m going to cry.

Not gone. Just editing. I’m working hard to try to get this thing out the door by Friday. Because of that, I’ve taken a mini-break on the 1000 words per day thing, only because I’m writing/editing that much and more and really, sending this puppy away is more important.

How’s everyone else doing on their challenge? And what’s new with you?

It’s done! It’s done! The WIP from Hades is finally done!!!!

2309 words today including the two most important words: THE END. Man, that feels good.

Of course, now I have to go back and read it a few times to clean up any left over threads, so it’s not totally done. But that I can handle. Especially since the edits should be pretty easy as I’ve been editing as I go.

My goal is to get it polished up and out the door to my agent by the end of next week. And as I’m doing that, I’m going to work on the new book (AKA the one I’m so excited about I can barely sit still) so I stick with my 1000-words per day.

God, it feels good to be done. I’m off to take a nap and celebrate.

Since the WIP is almost done (OMG…is it really? NO frickin’ way!!!!), I thought I’d post my song list for DTM. You know, the one that I listen to constantly as I’m writing (okay, not while I’m writing, but between writing sessions, this list is always going on my ipod or in my car or on the stereo while I’m doing stuff around the house so I can stay in the mindset of my book.) These are the songs my Gremlins can sing by heart because they’ve heard them so much, the ones my DH wants to puke to when he hears them come on yet again. The ones I still love and will always love because they make me think of this book (even though I’m sick of this book right now).

So here we go:

What songs are on your wip song list?

Climax = done.

Word count for the day = 3542 words/18 pgs.

I’m wiped. Going to bed to think about the resolution. (This is the fun, totally sappy, my-hero-is-a p*ssy-whipped-Nancy part, and I love it.)

Fun, fun, fun.

How’d you fare today?

I’m so close I can taste the sweetness of The End.

Word Count Update – been hitting my 1000 words consistently, though not going over by much. Can’t quite remember when I updated last. Monday? Assuming that, let’s see, my totals for this week so far are:

Tuesday: 1419 words/8 pgs
Wednesday: 1058 words/5 pgs

Four scenes left. Four frickin‘ scenes. I had the whole thing worked out in my head. The two climax scenes, the two resolutions scenes. Done. Finished. Stick a fork in me. And then…

Lying in bed last night I realized there is a small thread of similarity between this climax and the climax in my last book. Small. Tiny. Really inconsequential except for the fact these two books are loosely connected and if anyone read both, they would undoubtedly say, “Hm, that’s familiar.” I’m not sure how to get around it yet as it’s a trust issue/point that the heroine has to concede upon. Or maybe she doesn’t. Gah. Not going to be able to keep going until I work through this one minuscule point.

Last night Alice said, “Have fun with the ending.” Going to try to remember that as I try to fix this scene.

How are you doing on the writing, and where are you in the wip?

School starts back up tomorrow. Woohooo! (Can you tell I’m excited???) Actually, school for the 3rd grader starts tomorrow, my Kindergartner won’t start until next Monday (what’s up with that????? I swear schools in OR start later than everyone else in the frickin’ universe.) But what has me really excited is the fact Gremlin #2 got afternoon K, which means….since Gremlin #3 takes an afternoon nap, I’ll have 2.5 WHOLE hours of peace in my house where I can write and edit without constant interruptions. Man, I won’t know what to do with myself!

Speaking of writing, those of you who are taking the 100-day challenge are starting up today. Paty, Lisa, Alice, Lexi…I’m going to be hounding each of you. Whatever you set for your daily goal…you can do it. (Joan’s already been cooking on her daily word counts, so I don’t have to hound her as much…esp. since this was her idea to begin with.) Trust me when I say, it’s easier than it sounds. In fact, now that I’m making writing a habit again, I can’t believe how the words are flowing. Last night I wrote 2756 words, stayed up until midnight and didn’t even notice the time. I’m keeping a running spreadsheet total because, yes, I am a bit neurotic in some areas, and since I’ve now been at this a week, I can report that in 7 days I have written 17,379 NEW words in 81 pages. Now, I know for those of you who consistently write 10 pgs a day, that’s no biggie, but it is for me. I can’t remember the last time I was so productive (and that doesn’t take into account what I edited and rewrote during the day either, that’s just all new stuff). It feels AWESOME!!! Alice told me the other day that it was an interesting concept – she was writing and just decided to check her total. When she saw she was at 600 words, she figured heck, she could force herself to get to 1000…and she did. I bet she went over. Every time I’ve been stuck and forced myself to write a little more, I’ve gone over with less effort than I expected.

So girls…today is the start of the 100 day challenge. Go forth and write! (And report back on how you did. I’ll be checking your blogs.)

One -

Writing when the words are not flowing is pure torture. Complete Hell. Like peeling the skin off your bones one agonizing millimeter at a time.

Two -

Forcing yourself to write when the words are not flowing and meeting your 1000-word goal even though you had to open a vein to do so is the best feeling in the world. Almost as good as typing T-h-e E-n-d.

Okay, I lied. More than two…

Three -

I’ve discovered the bathtub is where my muse lives. After the bloodletting I took a hot bath, locked the door and thought. And discovered the reason the scene I’d been working on was like pulling teeth was because I was writing it out of order. Two other scenes I’d earmarked for later have to come first. The scene will stay the same with a few minor changes, but its impact will be much greater with what has to come before. So all in all, not a lost day even though I felt like it while I was writing.

Oh, yeah. Word Counts.

Let’s see…yesterday I got 1795 and stayed up until 1AM to do so. (Also researched a bit on the other book which I said I wouldn’t do, but what-evah. I felt like doing it.). Today, barely scraped by at 1052 BUT I figured out what was wrong, so that’s success in my book.

Did you meet your goal for the day?